Nine Months of Sheltering

It has been 39 weeks and 4 days since Friday, March 13th, the last day my kids attended school in person. That's a long time. A human could have fully gestated another entire human during the time that we have been sheltering in place due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Earth has continued to orbit the sun, we've experienced two equinoxes and one solstice in that time. Taylor Swift has written and released two albums. Astronauts have gone to the International Space Station and returned to the planet already. Multiple COVID-19 vaccines have been developed. I have done nothing so grand.

Here are a few of my Shelter In Place accomplishments from the past nine months:

I have become extremely adept at staying in bed until at least 7am every day, even when I shouldn't. I have trained my body to tolerate a cup of coffee or tea almost every day because I like the ritual of making something warm to drink in the morning. I don't get as hyped up on caffeine as I used to after one cup. I have done my house chores religiously, including scooping the litter boxes and picking up dog feces daily. That makes 277 days that I have cleaned up crap since this started! I'm going to put that on my resumé!

Even though I feel like my brain is complete garbage-mush, I have memorized both of my children's school ID numbers and am well practiced at logging in to their school accounts to check on assignments and grades. I have also memorized my library card because I use it weekly to check out books online and schedule curb-side pick up appointments. I have a fun new hobby of playing the game Best Fiends on my phone while listening to audiobooks or podcasts. That must be using two different parts of my brain at the same time, which is good brain exercise, right? 

My awareness of time has slipped into some type vortex. April feels like it was last week, or maybe ten years ago, I'm not really sure. I know I made dinner last night, but I can't recall what we ate. Screen time adds to this phenomenon. Many afternoons, when schoolwork and homework are complete, the kids are free to enjoy some fun screen time. I have developed a new habit that I like to practice during that time; I sit myself down on the couch with my book and my iPhone with every intention of reading, and instead I scroll through Facebook and Instagram, using my unopened book as a hand rest. I'm not particularly proud of that new habit, but it is the one I do most often. 

Other accomplishments include watching every episode of The Mandalorian. We have a new tradition of watching the show together as a family, which we all enjoy. 

We wear our masks when we leave the house, we keep physically distanced when around other people, we don't socialize in person with our friends outside of our social bubble, even though we REALLY miss them. This global pandemic is everywhere (hence the "global" and "pandemic") so I find it strange and shocking when I see pictures of friends who live in other areas participating in mask-less, pre-pandemic-looking social activities. Where I live, local mask recommendations and public restrictions were in place early, eased slightly and gradually over the months, then suddenly strict again last week. I am grateful for, respectful of, and understand the need for the guidelines in place. My county's population is approximately the same as that of the entire state of Idaho, and larger than the ten least populated states. We need to be careful here, and even with our efforts at prevention, the virus is spreading rapidly right now. 

Taken from City of Livermore's Website

Anyhow, here's to nine months in this mess! I'm expecting another solid nine. I'll let you know if I develop any new skills or invent human hibernation.

Stay safe out there. 

Health Recap

HER - The last time I wrote we were in the process of investigating Emma's arthritis and increasing her medication. Well, that higher dose of Enbrel seemed to help for a bit, until it didn't anymore. A blood test revealed that the kid developed antibodies to her medication, so even if we increased the dose further, it was likely not going to work as well as it had in the past. It was time for a change!

Em switched medications about a month ago. She is now on two injectable meds: One is a different biologic (Humira) that will work much like Enbrel did to suppress the immune response that leads to inflammation and arthritis symptoms. The other is methotrexate, which will help with arthritis symptoms and also slow her immune system from making antibodies to the biologic medication. The cool thing about these two meds is they come in injector pens. Just press the cylinder against the skin, click the button and let go, and the needle extends, injects the medication, and retracts. Easy peasy. After a few weekly injections and little practice with a dummy practice injector pen, MY TEN YEAR OLD HAS GIVEN HERSELF HER OWN INJECTION (of Methotrexate) TWICE!!!!! I'm so proud of her. (What a sad and strange accomplishment.)

At this point, we're not really sure if her arthritis symptoms have resolved, but I think they have improved. These meds take several weeks to kick in, so we'll stick with them a bit longer and see how everything goes. 

HIM - As for the other child... I haven't written about this yet, but he was diagnosed with ADD in the Spring. We're trucking along, trying a lot of behavior management techniques and attempting to put procedures in place that will help him be successful in e-schooling and learn to better regulate his emotions. He has become quite skilled at opening additional browser tabs while attended his video classes. When his headphones are on I play a little guessing game... Is he listening closely to his teacher? Is he watching a YouTube video of someone playing a video game? Is he reading a book on Epic? At the end of my game, I lose no matter what because I have to sit next to him for the duration of his class and keep him on task. This is why, if we pursue ADHD medication, I want zero judgment from all of you. I regularly accomplish very little most days that I am home with the kids because my chores are constantly being interrupted to help my little students, or my chores are never begun because I am quite literally my son's one-on-one aide all morning long. I'm thankful for my elementary school teaching credential and my few years of experience as a classroom teacher. I'm also really grateful that my current job was super understanding back in March when I told them I needed to work less hours to be able to support my kids at home. If you are a parent working from home while your children do distance learning, I BOW DOWN BEFORE YOU. Ugh. Parenting during a pandemic is hard.

ME - I had a hernia! TWO in fact! Disgusting!!!

My hernia bulge showed up mid-October. It was officially diagnosed a few weeks later and I had laparoscopic surgery to repair it in mid-November. I'm doing really well over all. Surgery recovery was fast, thanks to laparoscopy. I still have some sore spots and need to ease back into exercise (Ha! When was the last time I actually exercised?!?!) but I'm pretty much back to normal! Hooray! 

I will say that this experience has given me a reason to educate myself quite thoroughly on the anatomy of the inguinal canal. I love the internet. This website was my favorite resource, if you're curious. In a person with a uterus, the round ligament of the uterus runs through said canal. My hernias were both on my right side, which is the side of my weird uterus where I carried my children during both pregnancies. I therefore blame my children for these hernias, naturally. Good thing those kids are cute. 

The Husband - He's fine. That man is as healthy as a horse. That's what you get when you have a career that is by default an all day workout routine. 

How the heck are you?

Pandemic Procedures and Prescriptions

 Oh Emma. 

After restarting medication back in April, Emma got some relief from the arthritis symptoms in her jaw, but not for long. Morning stiffness and a weird squishy sensation started happening in her right jaw joint, so she ended up getting an MRI in August. She was an absolute rockstar during that MRI - she endured an IV catheter like a champ and held still for at least an hour inside that noisy tube while it took pictures of her head. The MRI confirmed the good news that she DOES indeed have a brain AND the bad news that she does indeed have active arthritis, despite weekly Enbrel injections. 

So, we increased the dose of her medication by increasing the frequency of her injections! Try telling a ten year old that she gets to be poked in the arm every five days instead of every seven! It's so much fun!!!

Really though, Emma is a good sport. She is starting to participate more and more in her medical decisions. She wipes her arm clean and mixes her medication for me before every injection. I haven't been able to convince her to give herself a shot, but we'll get there with time. 

She has been on the higher dose of meds for a couple weeks now. It's hard to tell if she is sensing any improvement. She *thinks* the squishy noise and stiffness are happening less often, but she also thinks that maybe she has acclimated to those symptoms so she isn't really noticing them as often. When the arthritis is in her knee it's REALLY easy for me to assess swelling, heat, and stiffness with my own eyes and hands, but her temporomandibular joint? Not so easy. 

She'll get some lab work done in a couple of weeks to see how her body is handling the higher dose of Enbrel, to look for inflammatory markers, and to make sure she hasn't developed antibodies to her medication. Fingers crossed that those results come back favorably. I don't really want to have to switch her meds. 

Juvenile Arthritis is dumb. 

Also, my kid looks really cute in a hospital gown.